Briefly: iWork '08, Pro Application Support, new iPod game

Apple's website on Monday briefly made reference to an iWork '08 application. Meanwhile, the company released Pro Application Support 4.0.1 and also put Sims Pool -- Electronic Art's latest iPod game -- up for sale on its ubiquitous iTunes Store.

Brief iWork '08 mention

A one-off mention of "Keynote '08" was visible on Apple's Hot News page for a few minutes on Monday afternoon before it was corrected. The mention was part of a headline that read "Apple Remote and Keynote '08" and was later shortened to "Apple Remote and Keynote."

Apple's iWork '06 and iLife '06 application suites have gone without updates since January of '06. However, the company is widely expected to take the wraps off updates to both software bundles in the coming weeks.

AppleInsider recently cited sources who said they expect updates to iLife in the Aug-Sept timeframe, adding that Apple was considering renaming the bundle iLife '08 given its multi-month delay.

iWork would presumably receive the same treatment.

Pro Application Support 4.0.1

Also on Monday afternoon, Apple released Pro Application Support 4.0.1 [7.6MB]. The update improves general user interface reliability for the company's professional applications and is recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Soundtrack Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Aperture, Final Cut Express HD, Soundtrack, Logic Pro and Logic Express.

Sims Pool for iPod

Meanwhile, Electronic Arts has released the second of four new iPod games planned ahead of year's end. The latest, Sims Pool, encourages players to "run the table" on their iPods.

"Create and customize a Sim, select a game mode, and enter the pool hall for exciting action," reads a description of the game. "Play 9-ball, 8-ball or fun trick-shot mode. Realize your Sim's goal by playing all the right angles and sinking smooth shots. With one-thumb ease, use the Click Wheel to set cue ball position, select cue angle, add spin, adjust power, and then shoot. The Sims Pool comes alive with vibrant graphics, realistic pool physics, multiple game modes, and immersive sound effects."

The $4.99 title requires a fifth-generation video iPod and iPod Software 1.2 or later. It's available from Apple's iTune Store, arriving less than two weeks after the release of Sims Bowling.

They need to make iWork into something that competes with Microsoft. I think its inevitable that at some point Microsoft will stop supporting Office on the Mac, or just start neglecting it. If that happens, Apple need to have something waiting in the wings that is as good as it is.

In related news, the Open Office Mac port is looking pretty good - that could be a suitable replacement for Microsoft Office, if Apple support it more (they currently provide free iMacs for developers I believe).

I hate how slow MS Office is to open on Macs. I really hope the upcoming Office fixes that. Theres no reason to wait 20 seconds to open a word page. Otherwise, screenshots of the next Office look kinda cool to me, almost better than their Vista equivalents.

It's about time Apple introduced a serious all encompassing office suite to compete with MS Office for Mac. A little competition may even spur on MS to update their software more often than every 4 years.

A reasonably priced well spec'd iWork would sell really well. I agree it needs a better word processor, a spreadsheet and database application.

Why wouldn't Apple use Excel? I don't think it would make sense to use AppleWorks or a beta of a spreadsheet for internal company-wide use.

Quote:

Originally Posted by eAi

In related news, the Open Office Mac port is looking pretty good - that could be a suitable replacement for Microsoft Office, if Apple support it more (they currently provide free iMacs for developers I believe).

NeoOffice is based on that and has worked reasonably well for over a year now. At least back then, OO.o for Mac used X11, NeoOffice already used Cocoa for the UI.

I very much prefer Pages to Word as Pages is so much easier to use. It should be about writing, not about processing.

The most obvious part missing in iWork is Options, euhm sorry, Excel. But I wonder how Apple is gonna redefine Windows' holy grail?! Excel truly is an amazing application. It is the only huggable Windows software that you wanna be friends with!!!

Yes, but NeoOffice uses the somewhat frowned upon Java interface for their port, the OO.o port is a native port. Sure, not a huge difference.

Plus NeoOffice essentially charges for their latest releases...

1. The NeoOffice interface is usable and getting better all the time.
2. OpenOffice on the Mac right now is two steps above vapourware.
3. The payment is required to get the software early. You can still get it for free six weeks later.

Yes, but NeoOffice uses the somewhat frowned upon Java interface for their port, the OO.o port is a native port. Sure, not a huge difference.

The official site and the porting site both still show OO.o for Mac as requiring X11. They do apparently have an alpha-level download for Aqua, but they have some terse warnings for those that try to download it because it's alpha code.

The most obvious part missing in iWork is Options, euhm sorry, Excel. But I wonder how Apple is gonna redefine Windows' holy grail?! Excel truly is an amazing application. It is the only huggable Windows software that you wanna be friends with!!!

OMG, you must be an accountant!

Quote:

Originally Posted by kisin

I think MS is already neglecting Office for Mac...

Yeah, the lack of macro compatibility has killed its usefulness for business.

I can testify to the fact that there are people in this world who use Excel to create posters and other advertising pieces and then send them in to be printed.

If you needed more evidence that the world is going insane, there it is.

Yes, I was reading design notes from an Excel team member on usability and he noted that MS testing revealed that many many folks used Excel for lists of things and stuff unrelated to spread sheet use (calculations, etc) which is why Excel excelled and Lotus Improv (a much superior spreadsheet) is a footnote of history.As a spreadsheet Improv was fantastic. But it didn't do lists very well.

Jobs was said to have thought highly of Improv. I would expect Numbers (or whatever it gets called) to be similar. We probably have better ways of keeping lists now but maybe not. Being able to stick stuff in a table and sort based on columns is real handy.

User/Task oriented design leads to better applications than feature oriented design. If folks like Excel its because the Excel team focused on how users actually used Excel. The Word team I'm thinking was more feature oriented.

I am expecting a lot from iWork. But with Apple's limited developer resources i have doubt if they could delivery anything revolutionary.

They need developers on the iPhone which delayed Leopard. I could only hope Apple's applications are developed by another separate team.

Keynote is the only application which i wouldn't need to worry about. As long as apple dont mess it up it is already very good.

Pages need A LOT of improvement in terms of Word processing. Both OOo And M$O are much better. Layout and Design wise Pages are much better.

I have trouble with finding a reason why apple would include a DB app into iWork. They have FileMaker 9 ( Which i think still need a lot of improvement, it just doesn't look like an apple app to me yet ).

spreadsheet - tables, graphics, spreadsheet are all needed. But apple faces M$ Excel. Which is very good. Could apple create something easy to use while retain most of the features found in excel?

And afterall M$ positions office as one stop solution from Novice to Pro. While Apple's iWork is more towards casual workers. Apple's Pro Application loses the i suffix. So in a way comparing iWork to Office is like comparing apple to orange

But if Apple decide to complete against Office. Should they change iWork's name?

spreadsheet - tables, graphics, spreadsheet are all needed. But apple faces M$ Excel. Which is very good. Could apple create something easy to use while retain most of the features found in excel?

And afterall M$ positions office as one stop solution from Novice to Pro. While Apple's iWork is more towards casual workers. Apple's Pro Application loses the i suffix. So in a way comparing iWork to Office is like comparing apple to orange

But if Apple decide to complete against Office. Should they change iWork's name?

I don't think iWork is at all poised to compete against Office. I don't think it needs to, and it's not a realistic expectation. I really don't think Apple can do what it takes to be a drop-in replacement and that's what would need to happen to truly replace the MS suite.

Pages is a little clicky, in part because of the tedious inspector system, and the program seems to get hyphenation wrong as much as it gets it right, but I still like the program. I would like a spreadsheet, but that can be quite an undertaking, though I don't think it needs to be terribly powerful.

Office really isn't positioned towards novices that I'm aware, for example, they tend to push Works to the home user.